Blender Underground

Hey guys, I've been thinking about this for some time, so I'll just post what I came up with:

I think it would be pretty cool if we'd do team challenges. I'd say we group up in teams of 3 to 5 people, we get a theme for a still scene, or better, a short movie, and have to get it done in one month.

Yeah, I know what some of you might be thinking: "That takes far too much time", "How can we coordinate ourselves?", and so on. Well, see it like that: If you're ever going to do a short on your own, you got to have a lot of spare time and a lot of talent/experience, too. So, if you're doing this with other people, the work is actually much less, but the end result is still nice.

Now about communication: BlenderUnderground got an IRC-channel since some time, it is right now running continuosly, thanks to ssen and his bot. So there is a way to talk about issues on the project. For file-sharing, there are sites like dropbox, sourceforge or, at least, mediafire. I think, the working-together part is possible with minimal effort.

Another problem is the different timezones. Not so much a problem if you consider that we got lots of active people at BU, so it should be possible to group up europeans with europeans or americans with americans. No discrimination intended, talking about timezones here.

The above all only states that it is possible to make team challenges. The reasons why we should have team challenges are simple:
1. Has anyone of you ever worked together with other people on a (non-)blender project, online? I guess, most haven't, but this happens quite often in business. It will be, at least for me, a completely new experience, and we will learn how to set up and work according to a reasonable schedule, how to coordinate actions, how to work with other people's .blends,...

2. In a short movie, nearly every Blender-tool finds its use, like modelling, rigging, animation, lighting, texturing, uv's, most likely particles or cloth and maybe even fluid sims. So this gives the team a wide range of work, and whenever a team member runs into a problem, it can be solved much quicker in the chat because the other members are working on similar tasks. This means, everyone of us will learn new things about blender and maybe get some tricks by more experienced users.

3. It will be a lot of fun, I think. And we will get to know each other a little better. This way, our community profits from a team challenge, too.


Damn, I don't know if this is a good idea or not, it might be worth a try, so I'd like everyone to think about it and give me feedback. I think it should be possible to get at least 3 teams for a challenge, and we might start with something funny and representative like "A tour through the BU bunker", where the different members are introduced.

I'd like to add a poll, I don't know how to do that... Someone help me?

I dont think we have enough people at the underground to do a group challenge.

Good idea to team up,

that might help some shy peoples to get pushed in the challenge of learning !

just make sure talents are well spread within different teams (don't put Penix1 in the same team as Apollos for god sake )




...I'd like that we keep it simple for a start,

I would prefer simples idea that cannot create any confusion within the team.

...some themes like :

- Soft drink explosions (nice, just got an idea for the current challenge )
- Tiny car race
- etc

Thought about that, too. If we'd make sure each team gets a noob and a pro, the noob might profit most by what he learns there. Not that we got any noobs around here

I like the idea of a car race a lot. It sounds like a tough animation, though. But a car race also gives a lot of freedom about the environment the race takes place and the cars used in the race.

This is actualy a good idea, ive always wanted to do this, but everyone ive asked said its too much hassle so i stopped asking people, and this will be a good way to do that proposition i was on about, but ide prefer if more poeple would do it though.

cool, I'm with prometheus




just kidding, just kidding


Yea, that car race is an idea from mine that I like, beside all the ideas from me that i do not like.
...which are numerous I tell you.

Anyways,

I suggest that we start up building team right away, and launch the contest while informing the others with some non-spam pm.

then those who's team do nothing can still join other teams and have fun...

what you think ?

Ok, Gol, I accept you as my padawan

I think someone should add a poll to the thread with options what people think about it, like the one in the BU Magazine-thread. That way we would soon know if there are enough people who want to join the challenge. And I also think we should wait with the actual start until the current challenge is over.

heeheh

I looked after that.

...wait, is the padawan the student or the master ?
I alway mix them up.



btw : poll is started

The lowly student who gets to do all the work while we watch!

The padawan is the student, the master is called... "master"

Goliath, how can I see who voted what? I'd like to know how we could build up the teams.

I cannot see that afaik, best thing is to ask peoples to post a "I'm in" comment
so that we can spot them. for now the potential participants are :


Bogieman987
Goliath
Jotoonkid
Maray
PNG_pyro
Prometheus
Ssen
SteveCameron
Unrealbeing
XChosen
Walshlg

Okay, so we* are doing a race? how about defining more about it - that gives everyone a better idea of what to work on,
e.g.:
Style - serious/semi/toon
enviro - city (F1 like or other)/wilderness/snow/offworld
Age - past(1920's)/past(60s-70s)/present F1/ future
How many racers? (does that equal teams of artists?)
How long will the finished anim be?

(* Yah, I just signed up for this one too.)
Hope this helps a bit.

i hit the second option... this sounds like a good idea. the time-zone thing might be an issue. but if we team with our own countrymen or close times, then it should be alright..

@Prof: I agree, we need some specifications. But I think it will be best if we leave it to the artists to decide the most important aspects. Thus, I'd say we only limit the animation length and the number of the racers to have something to compare.
I'd leave things like style, environment and age to each team to decide. Or we can just discuss it here and see where the majority stands.

@Unreal: Timezones are an issue, but since we got mainly 2 timezones here, that should be solved easily.

yeah, i sppose.. well. i think there is 3 time zones i think.. US, EU, and AU(i think there is one or two..)


oh, and ive just had a killer idea that fits into your 'race' topic... but ill never tell....